The Chicago Sun Times reports that *gasp* drivers still talk on their cell phone whilst 're driving– even after laws were enacted making the practice a ticket-able offence. No surprise there. A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that a 2001 cell phone ban in New York State led to a dramatic decline in in-car cellular communications. Three years later and the percentage of drivers using cell phones from behind the wheel went right back up to pre-ban levels. Why? Lax law enforcement; in Chicago cops wrote 13,400 cell phone related tickets as compared to 2.8 million traffic tickets. The study also cites an "above the law" attitude amongst offenders. In other words, there's a large number of cell phone-wielding drivers who believe they're perfectly safe drivers, much like chronic speeders. In this, they are sadly mistaken, as anyone who talks on a cell phone while driving may be as dangerous as a drunk driver.

The New York Sun reports that Queens City Council member and the head of their environmental protection committee (who knew?) is about to introduce legislation to ban smoking in cars carrying minors. If James "James" Genaro gets his way, Queen's finest will soon be fining child-schlepping smokestacks between $200 to $400 for their first such offense, $500 to $1k for the second violation and between $1k and $2k for a third violation (provided all tickets are issued within a year of each other, and I have no idea why there's a range of fines). The move comes on the heels of a citywide ban on smoking in restaurants and clubs and similar vehicular anti-puffing legislation enacted in Rockland County. As for the right to privacy objection, Genaro was taciturn: "You can't subject kids to 43 carcinogens and 250 poisonous chemicals and claim privacy. Get over it. Their right to privacy doesn't extend so far as to poisoning kids."

Well, it starts off predictably enough. The Scotsman links really expensive, really fast exotic cars and the death and destruction they wreak when it all goes "pear-shaped." We get the big numbers (a crash involving an £830k Bugatti Veyron), a celebrity connection (former world boxing champion Naseem Hamed's head-on collision in his paltry £320k McLaren Mercedes), a call from a responsible organization for graduated licenses for supercar operation (The IAM Motoring Trust) and then… ""These are ridiculous cars for wannabe jet pilots rather than people who need to get safely from A to B," declares Jenny Jones, The Mayor of London's road safety ambassador. "Some who buy these vehicles are clearly in need of either an advanced driving course or therapy." Either or? Anyway, call us irredeemable exotic car junkies, but that doesn't sound particularly ambassadorial to us. 

When medical studies declared second hand smoke a danger to non-smokers, anti-smoking crusaders found the ammunition they needed to bend public policy to their will. Global warming has played a similar role in the fight against the automobile. Yes, I said the automobile, not automotive emissions. While environmentalists on this side of the pond focus on fuel efficiency, alt propulsion and bio-fuels in a "have your cake and eat it" kinda way, European governments have pounced on the connection between cars and global warming to justify their ongoing anti-car crusade. And now the BBC reports a new front: obesity. The UK-based Institute for European Environmental Policy have released a study linking car ownership and obesity. Their report recommends an "exclusionary zone" around schools– to force parents and children to walk to class. Co-author Carolina Valsecchi connected the dots. "The twin crises of obesity and climate change are clearly interlinked through the switch from muscle power to engine power for transport. Concerted action is needed to reverse both these trends." Given parental protective instincts and bad British weather, a no-drive school zone would be a severe test of the Nanny State's power to restrict personal freedom for "your own good." 

"The letter shapes of Highway Gothic weren’t ever tested, having never really been designed in the first place. 'It’s very American in that way — just smash it together and get it up there,' says Tobias Frere-Jones, a typographer in New York City who came to the attention of the design world in the mid-1990s with his Interstate typeface inspired by the bemusing, awkward charm of Highway Gothic. 'It’s brash and blunt, not so concerned with detail. It has a certain unvarnished honesty.'" Still with us? Then don't miss the six-page Sunday Times article on highway signage, specifically one man's quest to change the typeface used thereupon. No, really. "There was the original Highway Gothic; British Transport, the road typeface used in the United Kingdom; Univers, found in the Paris Metro and on Apple computer keyboards; DIN 1451, used on road and train signage in Germany; and also Helvetica, the classic sans-serif seen in modified versions on roadways in a number of European countries." Let us know how it turns out. 

The UK is about to deny 17-year-old drivers a full driving license until they're 18. Restrictions during the new, probationary period would include motorway (highway) restrictions and a zero blood alcohol level. Research by the Department for Transport claims the changes could save up to 1000 lives each year. The Times says the move would also bring Briton into line with the majority of other European Union member nations. Americans might take a cue from their English cousins. Most U.S. states issue licenses to 16-year olds; South Dakota allows 14-year-olds behind the wheel. American teens currently account for their unfair share of automotive death and destruction. During 2005, drivers aged 20 and below were roughly 250 percent more likely to get in an accident than the national average. Their chance of a fatal wreck was twice the norm. In fact, car accidents are now the leading cause of death for American teens.

After clocking Ford's expanded recall for faulty cruise control systems (that could lead to vehicle fires), Florida's St. Petersburg Times asked local firefighters if they'd seen any evidence of Ford F-150s going up in smoke. Indeed they have. Pasco County fire investigator Don Campbell says he started noticing the problem about two years ago. "It's a staggering number now," Campbell said. "It probably averages about one a week in Pasco County." Hillsborough County fire investigator Dave Tucker also said he'd seem a rising number of incidents in recent months: "This has been a long-standing problem." Tucker described fires that burned a hole through the F-150's hood "the size of a basketball." While not exactly a scientific survey, if this pattern is repeated nationwide and receives more of the same sort of local coverage, Ford is facing another Explorer rollover-style PR debacle. Meanwhile, if you could call you local fire department and ask about their experience with F-150 fires and report back below, TTAC would be much obliged.

MSNBC reports the results of a Harris poll commissioned by mobile messaging service Pinger. The survey says… 91 percent of Americans want texting while driving banned. In the true spirit of "do as I say, not as I do," the poll also reveals that 57 percent of those sampled admit to sending text messages while driving. Washington State has already banned texting while driving, and six other states are considering similar legislation. Pinger has particular interest in getting the laws passed– they provide a voice messaging service. Their press release claims they offer "a safer way for drivers to stay in touch from the road" when "combined with a hands-free headset." However, that only helps the 57 percent who send messages. Incoming message notifications arrive in the form of a text message, so the 66 percent who admit that they read text messages while driving are still at risk. Doh!

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reckons some 1.5m American deer have a close encounter of the vehicular kind each year. On an annual basis, deer collisions take out 200 humans, injure 15k more and cost the insurance industry rack-up more than $1b in repairs. According to a report in the Black Hills Pioneer, researchers at the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University have spent the last six years trying to stop the car-nage. The Big Sky boffins are currently testing a trip-wire system in Minnesota. When deer break invisible beams along the side of the road, the system triggers flashing lights to warn drivers. Bob Weinholzer from the Minnesota Transportation Department is happy with the approach. "We can't do anything to control what the deer do, so this is an attempt to control the drivers." 

There's a cloud surrounding every silver lining. In this case, the London Free Press reports that the Canadian city's visually impaired population is worried about getting blindsided by hybrid cars. Ron Nurse expressed his concern over the issue, suggested adding a "flutter or a whirl" to hybrids, and revealed his, uh, bravery. "When you are standing on the corner, you have to think how close to the curb are you and you're left to wonder if it's OK to cross the street. More often then not, you just go." Kathryn Ruhland provided the spin control: "The biggest factor to keep in mind is that a majority of sound coming from the approaching car comes from the tires," the public relations manager insisted. Even so, the National Federation for the Blind is on the case. 

The Detroit News gives us the inside dope on Nissan's latest gadget, which allows drivers to pay even less attention to their driving than they do currently. Nissan's engineers have developed a system that combines radar sensors with a computer to "make a car that judges dangers on its own" and lifts the gas pedal to warn the driver of possible collisions. If the driver takes his foot off the accelerator in response, the car will brake to a stop. However, if the driver keeps his foot on the gas, the car will continue to go. So now, that person on the cell phone in the car in front of you suddenly has to wake up and make a split-second assessment: is the car giving a false alarm and can they keep going, or is something happening that requires the car to stop? Nissan also has a lane departure prevention system that "swivels a car back into its lane if it swerves off" which will be offered later this year on the Infinti EX. Wouldn't it just be easier to pay attention to what's going on around you?

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has revealed the premium-inflating costs of low-speed accidents to 10 luxury cars (plus a Saab 9-3). The IIHS subjected the fleet to crashes from four angles. The IIHS' boffins ran the front and rear tests at six mph, and impacted corners at three mph. And the "winners" are: Mercedes C-Class ($5486 front), Infiniti G35 ($3544 front corner), Infiniti G35 ($4035 rear) and Audi A4 ($1899 rear corner). To reduce insurance payouts costs, the IIHS advised luxury carmakers to lengthen bumper bars to protect critical and costly equipment ($1,046 for one Lexus ES headlight, not counting installation), make the bumpers taller to protect against SUVs, pickups and minivans; and mount bumper bars farther out. Are we looking at a return of the railroad tie bumper bars of the 70's? In their dreams.

Passenger vehicles' passive safety has improved dramatically over the last four decades. Yet millions of children continue to ride to and from school in buses little changed from those used when the Who wrote "Magic Bus." The family of a boy injured in a Kentucky bus crash may finally change that. Lawyers representing Cody Shively, a 12-year old boy who suffered brain and eye injuries in a bus accident, are suing the vehicles' manufacturers (Navistar International Corporation, Navistar International Transportation Corporation, International Truck and Engine Corporation and IC Corporation) and the Grant County School Board. Lawyer Stanley Chesley has a not-so-secret weapon: on-board video of the children during the crash. And he's not afraid to use it. Citing The American School Bus' Council's website's assertion that Yellow buses are inherently safe [since modified], Chesley unleashed the dogs of war: "Anyone who would make such absurd statements should be forced to watch those children flying around that bus during the accident. One moment they were just sitting in their seats, the next they were being thrown back and forth like trees in a hurricane and the bus was crushing like a sardine can."

Business Wire reports that the law firm of Sheldon J. Schlesinger, P.A. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida has hit Lexus and corporate parent Toyota with a class action lawsuit relating to the ES350's airbag sensors. According to Lexusdefect.com, "many owners have found that these sensors are intermittingly turning off thereby creating a situation where… the air bag would not deploy." The lawyers also maintain that "company spokespersons have stated that there is a problem, but they do not know how to fix it." Without citing any statistical evidence to support the allegation, they "believe that there is strong evidence this problem effects every single ES 350" and warn "if you have not experienced this defect, that does not mean it is not present." They aren't asking much– just for Lexus to recall and re-purchase the cars at their full cost, give full refunds to lessors and "compensatory damages for all costs and loss of value." 

Four states ban drivers from making cell phone calls whilst underway (California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York). Sixteen states ban beginning drivers from phoning from cars. In May 1999, the Oklahoma legislature rejected a bill mandating a blanket ban. The Journal Record reports state Rep. Paul Wesselhoft is shifting focus, proposing a mandatory fine of $1,000 and 20 days in jail for using a cell phone if it's determined to be a factor in an accident. Previously, Wesselhoft tried (and failed) to get OK to restrict drivers to hands-free devices. "I would much rather be on the preventative side of the issue. Unfortunately, we [now] have to punish them." Wesselhoft cited a NHTSA study revealing that drivers looked at the road less than 40 percent of the time while dialing a cell phone. He also pointed to statistics from the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office citing cell phones as a contributing factor in 802 accidents in 2006. Why can't we all just hang up and drive?